Hand Saws #6: A Millers Falls 74c Miter Box

I’ve wanted a miter box for a while, and had my heart set on a Millers Falls. I’ve looked at a few Stanley’s, but passed mainly due to price. While at an antique shop a short while ago I found this. Its a Millers Falls Langdon Acme Miter Box model 74C.

Once i got it home my intend was to just clean it up good and use it. I do remember walking to the shop one evening after work thinking, “maybe I’ll clean up the miter saw”, but I don’t know when it became a complete restore. I know I never intended it to be that way. I know at one point every piece was separated. They were cleaned, polished, honed and/or repainted.

I had to do a quite of bit of honing and polishing to get the cylinders to work right. The tooling marks were pretty prominent, leaving me to believe this hasn’t been used very much at all.

I even managed to peel the label off and glue it back on as it was before. I’ve gotten them off by heating them with a heat gun before, but this one just peeled right off.

The saw is a Disston-Porter Miter saw. I don’t believe its ever been re-sharpened and its still pretty sharp. I am going to use it a little to see if its ready for sharpening or if its ok as is. Its has a 24” blade being about 28” overall.

Don, I have the same exact mitre box. I had the saw resharpened by someone experienced and now it cuts wood like knife through butter. I use it all the time. Seeing yours makes me want to do a full restore on mine. All I did was clean mine up. Here are a couple pictures of mine in use as I cut through a small block of oak. Very accurate and clean cut.

Also, I have the instructions manual for the mitre box in PDF format. If you would like a copy I can email it to you. It explains all the parts and how to adjust the stops and such. I got it online but I cant remember the site otherwise I would just post a link. Easy enough to just email you a copy if you want.

I have the Langdon All-Steel mitre, and it’s a great tool. I’ve played around with the depth stops and cut tenons with the saw pretty effectively. Pretty cool. And I have the manual too; a needed resource, IMHO.

-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. -- OldTools Archive --

Smitty, I agree the manual is a needed resource, especially for someone like me who took the thing apart to clean it and had no clue how to put it back together!

Also, I had no idea that mine had a holding piece to cut crown moldings. I would have never known what that gizmo was there for had I not seen the manual. I’ll probably never cut crown moldings but I am glad I have the right tool for the job.

And yeah, knowing that it could ‘hold’ crown molding with those side pieces wasn’t anything I would have figured out for sure. Mine is missing the length gauge ‘rod’, No. 14557. According to the manual, I can buy a replacement for .30 – anyone know how to reach Millers Falls Customer Support? :-)

-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. -- OldTools Archive --

Don, what kind/color paint did you use for the body? It looks like the blue Delta uses. After seeing this post I am now thinking of going and giving my box a full restore…

I also recently picked up an old Stanley miter box w Disston saw that I found at Goodwill for like 8 dollars. Like the MF its mostly cast iron and looks very well made. I haven’t got a chance to do much cleaning to it yet but I am interested how the two compare.

I got lucky with mine as it had all the original parts. I actually have used the length gauge rod a few times so its kind of handy to have. If yours is the same rod that mine takes you could probably figure out a way to make your own. The rod on mine is just an L shaped rod. I imagine you could use an old Allen Wrench if it fit or buy a small piece steel the right size and bend it yourself.